Understanding field-dependent quadrupolar splitting of 131Xe for applications to surface/material studies
EMSL Project ID
25415
Abstract
We propose to study the quadrupolar splitting of 131Xe in the gas phase where a high magnetic field will distort the large electron cloud of 131Xe, thus creating an electric field gradient that will couple with the electric nuclear quadrupole moment. This effect, that leads to an NMR observable splitting (triplet) in the gas phase, was initially observed by Meersmann and Haake and has lead to two conflicting theoretical models. Beyond the obvious fundamental interest in resolving which of the two models is accurate, there is also a need to separate the high field quadrupolar interaction from quadrupolar interaction arising from surface collisions. Surface induced quadrupolar splitting and broadening can be used to study surfaces by nuclear magnetic resonance and magnetic resonance imaging. In previous work by Pavlovskaya et al. it was demonstrated that 131Xe can be used as an MRI contrast for surface hydration in porous media. This proposal builds on very recent breakthrough in hyperpolarizing 131Xe that opens up the possibility for MRI contrast with 131Xe at near ambient conditions. For this technology to become successful, a first step is to disentangle the quadrupolar splitting arising from the surface from the quadrupolar splitting induced by high magnetic fields.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2007-07-01
End Date
2009-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members